Louie Gohmert: No evidence from Eric Holder

Rep. Louie Gohmert continued the war of words that has flared between him and Attorney General Eric Holder, saying the administration official has no evidence to back up his claim of mistreatment by the House.

Gohmert responded Thursday to comments Holder made the day before about the tone of a House hearing on Tuesday, during which he and the Texas Republican had a heated exchange. Holder had told the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network conference in off-script remarks that no other attorney general has “had to deal with that kind of treatment."

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“Now, when he says that they — he’s been so mistreated, he does not have evidence,” Gohmert said Thursday night on Fox News’s “The Kelly File.”

Gohmert ticked off a list of past attorneys general to disprove Holder’s assertion.

“Alberto Gonzalez, [George W.] Bush’s appointment, was brutalized by Democrats in the Senate and House,” Gohmert said. “John Ashcroft was brutalized. Ed Meese — brutalized. John Mitchell, now he may have deserved what he got, but he sure got a lot worse treatment than this attorney general. So he makes these assertions, like some lawyers do in opening statements, but then the trouble is, when it comes to putting on evidence, he has none.”

Holder made the comments while discussing the state of civil rights today, decrying “ugly and divisive” challenges that individuals like he and President Barack Obama face.

When asked by host Megyn Kelly if Holder “played the race card” with his comments before the civil rights group, the tea party firebrand noted Holder never mentioned race and dismissed the speech regardless. His focus, he said, is getting documents from the Justice Department about Islamic charities — an ongoing battle that sparked Tuesday’s initial testy exchange.

“He didn’t say race, and he was very careful about that, and it doesn’t matter to me. I could care less,” Gohmert said. “I want to get to the bottom of it.”